What is a calendar quarter for unemployment benefits in Washington ESD?

Calendar quarters are just 3-month periods that divide up the year. Q1 is January-March, Q2 is April-June, Q3 is July-September, and Q4 is October-December. Washington ESD looks at your wages from specific quarters to determine your benefit amount.

Washington ESD uses what's called a 'base period' to calculate your benefits. This is usually the first four quarters of the last five completed calendar quarters before you filed your claim. They take your highest earning quarter and use that to determine your weekly benefit amount - it's typically around 3.85% of your highest quarter earnings.

I've been dealing with Washington ESD for months trying to get through to someone about my benefit calculation. The calendar quarter thing confused me too until I used Claimyr to actually reach an agent who explained it. The service at claimyr.com helped me get through the phone lines - there's even a demo video at https://youtu.be/7DieNd3C7zQ that shows how it works. Finally got someone to walk me through my monetary determination.

calendar quarters are basically jan-mar, apr-jun, jul-sep, oct-dec... pretty straightforward once you know. washington esd uses them to figure out your base period wages

If you don't have enough wages in the standard base period, Washington ESD can use an 'alternate base period' which looks at the most recent four completed quarters. This sometimes helps people who had recent job changes or were unemployed during the standard base period months.

This whole system is so confusing!! Why can't they just look at your last few months of work like a normal person would expect? I filed in December and apparently they're looking at wages from way earlier in the year instead of my most recent job.

Just went through this same confusion. Your monetary determination letter should show exactly which quarters they used and what wages were reported for each one. Make sure all your employers are listed correctly - I had one missing that I had to get added.

The calendar quarter thing threw me off too when I first filed. What really matters is understanding that Washington ESD needs those complete quarters to have accurate wage data. If you filed right at the beginning of a new quarter, they probably can't use that quarter yet because employers haven't finished reporting wages.

I'm still confused about something - if I worked all year in 2024 but filed my claim in January 2025, do they look at ALL of 2024 or just part of it?

This is why I hate dealing with government agencies. Everything has to be so complicated with their 'base periods' and 'calendar quarters.' Just tell me how much money I'm getting!

Pro tip: if you're trying to maximize your benefits, timing when you file can matter. If you're close to the end of a quarter and had good wages in that quarter, it might be worth waiting a bit so those wages can be included in your base period calculation.

I had a similar question about calendar quarters and used Claimyr to get through to Washington ESD. The agent explained that even if you have wages in a quarter, Washington ESD might not have received the wage report from your employer yet. That's another reason they use completed quarters with some lag time.

One thing to remember is that Washington ESD has to verify all the wage information with employers, which is why they can't just use your most recent pay stubs. The calendar quarter system ensures they have verified wage data that employers have officially reported.

Does anyone know if contract work or 1099 income counts toward your base period wages? I had a mix of W-2 and 1099 work last year.

I just want to add that if you think there's an error in your monetary determination, you can appeal it. I had wages missing from one quarter and successfully got it corrected after providing additional documentation.

Another thing about calendar quarters - Washington ESD uses them for determining if you meet the earnings requirements too. You need to have earned at least a certain amount in your highest quarter AND have total base period wages of at least 1.5 times your highest quarter earnings.

Last month I was confused about the same thing and ended up using Claimyr to talk to someone at Washington ESD. They explained that your monetary determination letter shows each calendar quarter and the wages reported for that period. Really helped me understand why my benefit amount was calculated the way it was.

One last thing - if you're looking at your monetary determination and the quarters seem wrong, double-check the dates. Sometimes people get confused about which year they're looking at, especially if they filed their claim early in the new year.

thanks everyone for explaining this! i was totally lost when i got my monetary determination letter but now i understand how washington esd calculates benefits using calendar quarters. makes way more sense now